The glaciers are melting, the oceans are rising and this past year was the warmest ever recorded. Climate change is happening. Al Gore says so. Time Magazine, too.

The “Creating a Climate for Change” tour is a vegetable oil and solar powered educational road show featuring high quality teaching from the nonprofit National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). Sponsored by corporate partner Stonyfield Farm andtraveling from city to city nationwide, the bus and its staff of young NOLS graduates offer lessons on leadership, backcountry skills and environmental ethics.

In three years the bus has traveled more than 110,000 miles across the lower 48 states, and visited over 300 colleges, school, retailers and festivals, all powered by recycled vegetable oil collected by the crew at restaurants and dining halls along the way. Recycled vegetable oil is a cleaner, renewable alternative to petroleum and it is grown right here in the USA by American farmers. The bus also sports a rooftop solar array that keeps the bus off the grid while powering televisions, computers, stereo and refrigerators for the Stonyfield Farm yogurt treats that are available at every stop.

“We’ve saved thousands of dollars running on veggie oil and solar,” says Bruce Palmer, NOLS director of admission and marketing. “But more important, as a school that develops positive leaders and teaches environmental ethics, we have practiced what we teach and demonstrated alternative energies aren’t just possible, they are practical.”

“Creating a Climate for Change” visitors learn about alternative energy, practice their climbing skills on its bouldering wall, learn about NOLS courses, perfect their fly fishing cast, and gain understanding about Leave No Trace outdoor ethics. To learn more about the NOLS Bus, please visit www.nols.edu/bus.

Stonyfield Farm, celebrating its 25th year, is the world's leading organic yogurt maker, and produces all natural and organic yogurt, smoothies, cultured soy, frozen yogurt, ice cream, and organic milk. The company advocates that healthy food can only come from a healthy planet. It was the nation's first dairy processor to pay farmers not to treat cows with the synthetic bovine growth hormone rBST. Stonyfield donates 10 percent of its profits to environmental causes; was America's first manufacturer to offset 100 percent of its CO2 emissions from its facility energy use; and recently installed the largest solar array in New Hampshire to help power its production plant -- all efforts to reduce global warming.

Founded in 1965 by legendary mountaineer Paul Petzoldt, the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) is the leader in wilderness education and sets the industry standard for responsible, high-quality educational expeditions. NOLS provides an awe-inspiring, transformative experience that develops active, positive leaders with lifelong environmental ethics and outdoor skills to more than 10,000 students each year. A private non-profit school, NOLS runs 10-day to school-year-length courses on four continents. NOLS students, ages 14 to over 70, explore the most remote wilderness areas in the Rocky Mountains, Idaho, Pacific Northwest, Southwest, Alaska, Western Canada, Mexico, Patagonia (Chile), India, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and Baffin Island have to offer. College credit and scholarships are available. For more information, call NOLS at (800) 710-NOLS (6657) or visit the web site at www.nols.edu.

It's all happening at the bus (on,
under, and beside it)! Click
here for the NOLS Bus schedule of events.